Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez hugged his mother tightly and cried after being released Thursday evening from the Leon County Jail, where the U.S. citizen was being held as an “unauthorized alien” following his arrest on charges of illegally entering Florida.
A Homeland Security Investigations agent in Tallahassee took Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old who was born in Georgia, to a Wendy's near the prison, where he was reunited with his mother after spending more than 24 hours in custody following a traffic stop in which he was a passenger.
Lopez-Gomez appeared shocked and spoke quietly as he discussed what happened when a Florida Highway Patrol trooper stopped the car he was in on his way to work from Cairo, Georgia, to Tallahassee. According to the arrest report, the officer made a traffic stop because the driver was traveling at 120 km/h in a 100 km/h zone.
“I'm fine leaving this place, I felt bad there. They didn't give us anything to eat all day yesterday,” he told the Florida Phoenix in Spanish. He added that he asked the police officer who made the arrest why he was being taken into custody since he was a U.S. citizen.
His mother, also speaking in Spanish, said the coming days would be hard for the family and feared Lopez-Gomez and his sisters will live in fear of deportation despite being born in the country. She told the Phoenix that she plans to file a lawsuit over her son's arrest.
“I have no way to pay all the people who are helping us. People have called us from other states and we have no way to pay them; all we can do is thank them,” Gomez-Perez said.
The couple only reunited in the evening after Lopez-Gomez made her first court appearance earlier in the day. Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans ruled Thursday morning that she did not have the authority to release him because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had formally asked the jail to hold him for 48 hours.
After Riggans examined his Social Security card and birth certificate, which an attorney waved in the courtroom, the judge said she found no probable cause for the charges.
“When the court looks at it, feels it and holds it up to the light, they can clearly see the watermark that shows that it is indeed an authentic document,” Riggans said.
The arrest file filed by the trooper says Lopez-Gomez stated he was in the country illegally but turned in his ID. The arrest report did not mention the social security card. However, Lopez-Gomez told the Phoenix that he showed the officer a copy of his Social Security card and Georgia ID card.
The HSI agent who took Lopez-Gomez to Wendy's directed questions to a spokesperson, who did not respond to the Phoenix's request for comment or questions as of this publication.
After reuniting with his mother, Lopez-Gomez returned to the prison parking lot, where 30 protesters had called for his release. They greeted him with cheers and hugs.
Lopez-Gomez is due to return to the Leon County Courthouse on May 6. He was charged under a recently passed law that a federal judge has temporarily barred the state from enforcing, further questioning the validity of his arrest, charge and detention.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 4-C into law on February 14, and U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams blocked enforcement on April 4.
The law makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants over the age of 18 to “knowingly” enter Florida “after entering the United States by evading or evading the examination or inspection of immigration officials.”
Two other men who were in the car with Lopez-Gomez, the driver and another passenger, also made their first appearances Thursday on the same charges. The driver was also charged with driving without a license.
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